Students give up spring break for agriculture

Joanna Smith thought she knew something about agriculture. Her godparents operate a dairy farm and many of her relatives live in rural areas.

But all that changed a few weeks ago.

The journalism student at Montreal's Concordia University participated in Farm Credit Canada's (FCC) Ag 101 on Highway 1 tour in February. The weeklong tour took four journalism and broadcasting students from different post-secondary schools to agriculture operations in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A similar tour for three French-speaking students occurred in early March, which sent three students to tour operations in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

The students gave up their spring breaks to dive into the field of agriculture.

“I won't say I wasn't aware of the complicated nature of agriculture,” says Smith. “I did learn it is much more complicated than I could have imagined and that too many misconceptions are at the root of the urban-rural divide.”

The tours gave students insight into the challenges and opportunities that farmers and agribusinesses face in agriculture - an industry they will cover as future reporters.

To close the gap between the barn and the bowl, the students were immersed in agriculture, visiting everything from wineries and greenhouses to a mixed beef operation and an ethanol plant.

“I came on this trip with no agricultural background whatsoever,” says Stacie Snow, a student at Mount Royal College in Calgary who also attended the tour. “I have a new respect for farmers and the agriculture industry in general. I had no idea how many areas farmers must specialize in. They must be business people, mechanics, economists, teachers, veterinarians, biologists, accountants and more.”

Allison Finnamore, a veteran of Canadian agriculture reporting and resident journalist on the tour, says that the students' eyes were opened to a whole new world. “One student told me she learned as much during the tour as she would during an entire semester at university,” she says. “It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm of these students, and watch their news sense tweak when they spotted a story.”

The tour wasn't just a relaxing trip through the countryside. Just like working reporters, the students had to file stories to FCC, adhering to strict deadlines, after visiting up to three operations each day. The students filed print, radio, television and web news stories, which were edited and posted onto the FCC website, along with photos they took.

“I also have a new respect for where my food comes from, how it's produced and the detailed processes that are involved in the production of goods in Canada,” Snow says.

With their new understanding of agriculture, most of the students plan on writing stories about the industry.

“I learned that it's not what you ask, but how. Journalists need to work hard to prove to producers that we are actually interested (in agriculture) and not out to get them,” says Angela Hill, a journalism student at the University of Regina who was on the tour.”

To learn more about the Ag 101 on Highway 1 tour, please visit www.fcc-fac.ca.